Byron Blake | Nuclear power: Take the warnings seriously

Why Portmore should go solar? That was the question posed by Maurice Miller in his article in The Sunday Gleaner, of November 24. It is a critical and timely question, given issues such as climate change and global warming, Jamaica’s heavy dependency on fossil fuels, and the high and fluctuating price of electricity.

It is a critical, but not even a J$10, question for any Jamaican. It should not even be a J$2 question for residents of Portmore – a municipality reputed to have one of the highest densities of tertiary-level graduates among its residents in the Caribbean.

I was expecting to see scores of responses. I have not. Jamaicans and residents of Portmore may not have responded because they consider it a trick question since Miller answered it by stating the nickname ‘Sunshine City’. But I suggest we respond whether the answers are obvious, or not when such questions are posed. In an age where private profit is king, and power is concentrated among the few kings, it is not difficult for the obvious to be substituted by the sublime and the weak made to pay.

Miller, in his well-reasoned article, went beyond energy from the sun lest the brightest among us point to the obvious fact that even for the Sunshine City there will be days when the sun will not shine brightly. He has pointed, for example, to waste-to-energy (solid and liquid), wind, and biomass where the technology is well developed and safe, even if expensive. Waste is not only abundant in the immediate vicinity, but it is a problem in search of a solution. Witness the government’s challenge in trying to find a replacement home for the Riverton City landfill. It is not just the issue of “not in my backyard”, the truth is that there are few convenient backyards. So, the economic evaluation of a waste-to-energy plant, say in Portmore, must not only consider the cost of producing the electricity but also the savings from alternative means of waste disposal.

PRODUCE MORE BIOMASS

We wish to add that, with the increasing ambient global temperature, Jamaica, particularly the Kingston Metropolitan Area and Portmore, will need to produce more biomass to dampen the impact. But that biomass must be managed especially in the urban setting and, given the annual hurricane season, will provide a steady supply of ‘free’ biomass for an energy plant.

Miller correctly points to several risks associated with nuclear technology, including SMR for Jamaica and, more so, Portmore. We underscore his reference to the ever-present and statistically increasing threat of a tsunami from an eruption on the Plantain Garden fault. Portmore lies due west, less than 40 miles on the Caribbean Sea.

Miller references the seeming interest of the Government of Jamaica in nuclear energy. He instanced the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Government of Canada and Canadian experts to explore the possibilities. There is no reference to any Jamaican experts being involved in those explorations. It is worth noting that Canada is a potential exporter of SMR technology and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories is the company with which businessman Lee Chin signed an MOU in October 2022 to promote the sale of SMRs to small island states.

UNCONNECTED POLICY STATEMENTS

There has been no discussion or analysis in Parliament or the public square about these seemingly unconnected policy statements or commitments by the Government. Other such statements and initiatives include:

• April 28, 2023, where Prime Minister Holness, in an address at the Opening of the Expo, signalled the Government’s intention to integrate nuclear energy into Jamaica’s energy mix and noted that he had already spoken to the IAEA about it.

• October 2023: the PM again touted nuclear energy supplies, boasting that “Jamaica was one of the few, if not the only small island state, considering nuclear energy”. He was correct. Caribbean countries such as Puerto Rico and Cuba had considered, initiated, and abandoned such efforts.

• December 2023: Jamaica not only signed the COP28 declaration tripling global nuclear energy capacity by 2050, but joined 25 countries in a declaration to triple their production of nuclear energy by 2050. Jamaica was the only country in the Western Hemisphere apart from the two nuclear powers, Canada and the United States, and the only small island state in the world to sign that declaration.

• In October 2024, the Scientific Research Council (SRC) convened a paid Conference on Nuclear Energy at the Conference Centre in downtown Kingston

• On November 2, 2024, the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce ran a full-page (p 9D) advertisement in the Sunday Gleaner, with the logos of the four technical agencies that fall under the ministry at the top and the subject caption, ‘Nuclear Technology: A Closer Look’.

• The Gleaner of October 31 carried an item ‘NCB eyes nuclear energy for Portmore with a photo featuring Mr Lee Chin and Mayor Leon Thomas at a two-person table.

These apparently disparate activities and commitments are suggestive of a strategy, so I commend Miller on shining the light. I urge Jamaicans and, especially, the residents of Portmore, to take his warnings seriously.

Ambassador Byron Blake is former deputy permanent representative of Jamaica to the United Nations and former assistant secretary general of CARICOM. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.